Gabe also processed the two men who had broken into the dorm and sorority. Neither had given any more information. Luke knew where to find them if the time came. Cooper offered to drive Luke back and retrieve his SUV later. Luke declined. He wanted time on the road to gather his thoughts before arriving in Little Rock. Luke needed to hit the ground running.
Luke had been on the road for more than an hour, and as each mile passed, he replayed how it all went wrong. He tried to convince himself that he shouldn’t have so blindly followed the note and the word of a psychopath. His captain, though, assured Luke that was exactly what he had to do. Captain Meadows postulated that the murder could have taken place anywhere, and even if Luke was in Little Rock, he couldn’t have stopped the abduction and murder. Cooper and Tyler had echoed the same.
Deep down Luke knew they were speaking the truth. There was no way he couldn’t have acted on the tip. Even if he was in Little Rock, there was no way he could have known the university was a target. But that didn’t make Luke feel like any less a failure or give him any solace. Now, more so than ever, Luke just wanted revenge. The psychopath, who called himself The Professor, had brought Luke’s parents into this.
The idea that the man had planted a body while watching Luke’s parents’ house terrified him. It made his skin itch. Riley was with his parents. He had spoken to both his mom and dad and briefly with Riley. He was glad she was there. It was one less thing he needed to worry about. Luke’s father was strong. They would get through this just like they had his sister’s murder. The only difference was this time Luke wouldn’t fail at catching her killer.
Luke plotted and planned the rest of the trip. He was used to facing setbacks in investigations and coming back stronger. This is what he needed right now.
Once Luke finally arrived back in Little Rock, he navigated from the interstate to his parents’ house. Purvis, the medical examiner, already had the body. Luke wanted to check on his parents and assess the crime scene for himself. Captain Meadows had said the crime scene techs had already come and gone. Dusk was falling and Luke wasn’t sure what he’d be able to see, but there was no way he wasn’t going to the scene.
As Luke pulled down Beechwood, two uniformed cops stood at the barricade. He drove towards them and stopped. Luke waved them over, showed his credentials and they let him pass. Most of the department either knew Luke or knew of him, but he appreciated they still had a job to do. Turning down S. Lookout, a street Luke had been down since childhood, he was suddenly overcome with grief – raw, real emotion. It took him off guard and the tears flowed. He choked back the sobs.
Luke pulled into his parents’ driveway right behind Riley’s SUV. He put his SUV in park and tried to regain his composure. The tears kept coming. Luke wasn’t sure how long he sat there, but before he realized it, his father stood at his side window, a look of sympathy and concern on his face. Luke wiped his eyes with his hand and got out.
Spencer embraced him in a hug. “Sometimes you just need a good cry.”
His father offering support when Luke knew Spencer needed it more broke his heart. It forced him to pull himself together and stand back from his dad. “You okay, Pop?”
“As well as can be expected.”
Together they walked to the end of the driveway and looked across the street. It was roped off still, but there was just enough daylight left for Luke to go over and take a look. Before crossing the street, Spencer said, “I’ll show you the spot. They have it marked off, but I’ll show you exactly where she was. I take the dog for a walk over there every day and she was right there near the footbridge, but down enough, wedged against it so you had to be right there to see her.”
“Where’s Riley?”
Spencer looked back at the house. “She made us dinner. Riley and your mother have been asleep for about an hour. I can wake her when I go back in.”
They crossed the street and entered into the woods to assess the spot where the girl’s body had been found – the second time the two had to undertake such a task. It may not have been Luke’s sister this time, but it wasn’t any less personal.
CHAPTER 35
I stood at the edge of the trail, on Fairview, and watched Luke search the ground looking for clues. Spencer had woken me up when he had come back in the house. I immediately went to see Luke.
I had not been to the site, yet, but was hesitant to walk down the dirt path, to where Luke stood. I knew I had to, but my feet didn’t want to move. Going to the spot where a young woman’s body had just been found was proving more difficult than I thought it would be.
Earlier in the day when I had shown up to Luke’s parents, they immediately welcomed me. Spencer and Lucia were both thankful that I was there, not that I felt I could do much for them. They were amazing people and loving parents. They made me feel as comfortable as I do with my own family. I was there to provide support, but I felt just as supported in return. Spencer had looked as exhausted as Lucia did scared. I had felt a mix of both.
While I was there, I learned the victim’s name. I had missed it when I first caught the news at Dugan’s but heard from Captain Meadows that it was Cristina Sawyer. She had been a freshman at the university and from a small town about fifty miles outside of Little Rock.
Now standing on the edge of the wood, watching Luke, I assessed the section of Allsopp Park, where her body had been left. The small section of woods had two entrances – off Beechwood to the west, and Fairview, where I was standing, to the east. Both streets ran perpendicular to S. Lookout. Cristina’s body was found in a tiny section of the total park and trail. The U-shaped Fairview made a tiny island in the overall dense park. If you entered at Beechwood, you’d walk east, and then have to cut south along the trail where Fairview cut into the woods. Once around, you’d keep following the trail east.
It was a strange part of the park to leave a body. It was close to homes, hard to enter because of a lack of street parking, and shallow. There were other parts of the park that offered better parking nearby and were denser, meaning a body placed there might have taken days to be found.
The killer wanted to leave a message. He wanted her to be found. The calculated risk was worth it to let Luke know he could get to his parents. The spot was carefully planned.
Near the entrance at Fairview, there was a small wooden footbridge, which covered a section where the earth dipped low. The bridge allowed the trail to be flat. It was down in the dirt, next to the bridge, where Cristina’s body had been found. Captain Meadows said she was propped up against one of the posts. Her head had slumped forward, but her body had remained upright. Her hands were in her lap. There was no blood on the ground.
Captain Meadows theorized that she had been killed elsewhere and placed at the spot. No one had heard screaming, and she was close enough to homes that someone might have heard. Captain Meadows didn’t think the killer would take the chance to kill her at the spot. He wanted to leave a message, but he didn’t want his game to end, just yet. I agreed with Captain Meadows that she had been killed someplace else. It seemed the evidence backed that up, too.
Luke crouched down surveying the ground by the footbridge. I called his name so I wouldn’t startle him. Luke looked around and once he saw me, he stood. As soon as I got close enough, he pulled me into him.
“I talked to my dad a little, but really, how are my parents doing?” He ran his fingers through my hair.
“Better than to be expected, I think. Your mom was more shook up than your dad, but maybe he just hides it better.” I kissed him and then stepped back. “What happened in Fayetteville?”
Luke ran though the events in detail, right up to the moment that Det. Tyler had informed him, and Cooper, that the girl’s body had been found.
“Is Gabe arresting those two men?”
“He did,” Luke explained. “He made the arrest on burglary charges and was going to question them again.”
“That professor, Aaron Roberts. You have any feeling on him one wa
y or the other?”
“You’d have to ask Cooper about that. I didn’t interview the guy. I figured he’d talk more to Cooper, especially if he knew Lily was my sister.”
That made sense. Luke bent down to look at the ground again. He checked the spot where the footbridge connected to the ground. He stood again and looked back up at the road, but it wasn’t visible from where we were standing.
“What are you thinking?” I asked, walking over to the spot.
Luke turned all the way around, checking out every direction. “I was just trying to figure out how he got her in here without being seen. I know it was the middle of the night, but still, there isn’t much street parking. It’s dark as hell out here, full of sticks and debris. It’s hard to stay on the trail in daylight let alone at night. Plus, he’d be carrying her. I’m wondering how he pulled it off.”
“There’s some parking down Fairview,” I offered. There’s no way he would have parked on Beechwood or on S. Lookout. There wasn’t much room for cars to pass. It was too obvious and suspicious if someone happened by, even in the middle of the night.
“That’s true.” He moved past me and walked up the part of the trail I had just come down. He called over his shoulder. “This is definitely easier to walk than coming in from Beechwood.”
Night was coming pretty rapidly and there wasn’t much light left. I followed close behind Luke. As he approached the road, a man stood there quietly. I wasn’t sure if he had been watching us or not, but he was definitely unexpected.
“Can I help you?” Luke asked. He stomped some dirt off his shoes on the roadway.
The man pointed to the house across Fairview. “I live right there.” He stuck his hand out to shake Luke’s. “I’m Ryan. I think I saw the killer last night.”
CHAPTER 36
“Tell me everything you saw,” Luke said. He looked to me, and I looked at the man, waiting for more explanation.
“My dog woke me up last night to go out. It was just before three. I had looked at the clock, annoyed with him. He doesn’t usually have to go in the middle of the night. I let him out in the backyard. I stood on the back porch waiting for him. I don’t know what caught my eye, but I saw a light over here, like a flashlight. I didn’t think anything of it at the time. We get kids out here, sometimes, walking the trail at night.”
“What makes you think it was the killer?”
“Well,” Ryan said tentatively, “the light didn’t move. Normally, when kids are walking along the trail, the light keeps moving. This time it stayed in the same area so I got curious about what they were doing out here. I let the dog back in, and I kept watch. We may get the occasional kids coming through here at night, but it’s a safe neighborhood.”
“How long did you wait?” Luke asked.
“It was probably twenty minutes. I had no idea what was happening, but the light was just sitting in one spot. I wondered if, maybe, it was a homeless person, but then I noticed the car parked along the road. Nobody parks there.”
“Did you get any of the car details?”
The man bit at the inside of his cheek and eyed Luke like he didn’t want to tell him. Luke raised his eyebrows at him and encouraged him to say whatever it was he had to say.
Finally, Ryan admitted, “Yeah, I got curious so I crept out, through the far back gate, and walked up the road in the opposite way, coming towards the front of the car. It had Texas tags and was a Jeep, one of those smaller SUVs. I wrote down the tag number. It’s in my house, I can get it for you.”
“Why didn’t you want to tell me that?” Luke asked curiously. He didn’t have any anger in his voice. If anything, he sounded impressed.
“It’s what happened next that I didn’t want to say.”
“And what was that?”
“When I was close enough to read the tag number, I heard the rustling of leaves and someone moving in the woods. I assumed they were walking up the path so I ran back and hid along the tree line.” Ryan pointed up, maybe, thirty feet from where we were standing. “I moved far enough back so I was standing in the trees, so when he turned his lights on, he wouldn’t be able to see me.”
Luke looked at me. His face registered the same shock I felt. I didn’t think there was any way there’d be a witness, let alone something this promising.
“Did you see him?” Luke asked hopefully.
“Just in the shadow,” Ryan explained. “The car was definitely his. When he got in, no interior light came on, but he was probably a little taller than you, heavier build, but not fat, just stocky. He was average. There wasn’t anything that jumped out at me.”
Ryan added, “He drove right past me but was looking straight ahead. I’m sure he didn’t see me.”
I was riveted by how close this guy came to the killer. He was lucky he wasn’t seen.
After a few beats, Luke asked, “Did you go into the woods to see what he had been doing?”
“No, that’s why I’m so upset with myself. I went back inside and figured I’d come out in the morning, but I was running late for work so I didn’t get the chance. I work for the gas company. My wife called me and told me what had happened.”
Ryan looked down and kicked the dirt with his shoe. He looked up at Luke and said sincerely, “Do you think she was still alive? Do you think I could have saved her? It was just too dark to see anything, and I didn’t have a flashlight with me. I never would have thought…”
Luke reached out and put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him. “Listen, she was dead long before he put her here. There’s nothing you could have done. I promise you that. You can help us now though.”
“Anything, whatever you need,” Ryan assured.
“Go back to your place and get me that tag number. Tomorrow, I want you to come down to the police station and give a formal statement. I want you to work with a sketch artist, too. I know you may not think you remember much about him, but maybe as you’re sitting there and the picture comes to life you might remember more.”
“I’ll be there.” Ryan headed back to his house.
Luke waited until he saw him go inside and the door shut behind him. “What do you think?”
“I think we might have gotten a lucky break on this one.”
“I don’t know if it’s as lucky as you think,” Luke commented. He looked back into the woods. His gaze was far off.
I wasn’t sure where his mind just went. I reached out and tugged his arms. “What do you mean?”
“Look at the hoops he’s made us jump through. He’s been doing this for years and hasn’t gotten caught. I don’t think it’s going to be as easy as we have this tag number, pull his registration and there’s the killer. He might have taken the risk to bring her body here, but I’d be really surprised if that car leads us back to him.”
I started to speak, but Ryan came back out of his house. He walked over to where we still stood and handed Luke a slip of paper with the tag number on it.
Pointing down the road, Ryan said to Luke, “My wife just reminded me that the neighbors on the other side of Fairview have cameras facing the street. As he looped around Fairview to go back to S. Lookout, it might have picked him up.”
“I’ll head over there now. I’ll see you in the morning.”
As Ryan left, I said, “Even if it’s not his car, at least maybe there’s a video of him. I really don’t think he’d have someone else leave the body.”
Luke agreed. I told him I’d meet him at home after he went to see if he could retrieve any surveillance footage. I knew he’d spend some time with his parents, too. What started as a boring day, heading out to read at the pub, turned into one of the most stressful and upsetting that I’ve faced in a long time. I was ready for the day to end.
CHAPTER 37
It was mid-day on Sunday. Luke had his whole team assembled in the police station’s conference room. Cooper and Det. Tyler had made it back from Fayetteville. Riley had come to the station about an hour before the meeting and brought Luke
the breakfast he had failed to grab before rushing out of the house that morning. Captain Meadows had even come in on a Sunday.
Luke was ready to go over the events of the last forty-eight hours. A lot had happened, and Luke was head down and focused on making sure they were all on the same page going forward.
“Gabe, can you hear us?” Luke asked, leaning towards the phone that had been set in the middle of the table. They were conferencing him in from Fayetteville.
“I’m here,” Gabe’s voice boomed from the speaker. Luke lowered the volume just slightly, but the reception was strong and clear.
Luke cleared this throat and started. “It seems crazy that the first letter was just a few days ago. Now we have another death. We were played in Fayetteville while he struck here. You all have told me we couldn’t have done anything, and I agree, but we need to bring him to justice now.”
Luke detailed for the group everything he had found the night before, including Ryan, the neighbor, who had come forward with information. Luke also explained that he had tracked down the other neighbor with the surveillance camera on their house. The homeowner had been more than happy to give Luke anything he needed. The guy, a veteran, had some high-tech surveillance monitoring his property. Like the rest of the community, he was angry that a girl had been killed a block from his house and was eager to do anything to catch the killer.
Luke had the department’s tech guys going over that footage. Luke explained that Purvis should have the autopsy done on Cristina Sawyer today.
Luke walked to the big dry erase board he used with every homicide case he worked. He used it to tack up photos, write notes, and make connections. He liked having a visual of the case. The board right now was empty except for one lone photo of a Jeep Compass, which Luke just added.
He explained, “After running the tag number that Ryan provided, it confirmed what I had suspected. The car was a rental. Not only a rental but a stolen rental at that. The rental place is out near the airport. I called around until I finally found the owner of the company at home. He confirmed the Jeep was one of his. He immediately went into the office to look at the records. I met him there. It wasn’t rented out. They had no record of anyone taking that vehicle. They are closed the weekend so someone could have easily stolen it Friday night and returned it without them ever being aware.”
The Bone Harvest Page 12